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Img_20220214_023902-min
joined May 10, 2014

Was kinda lukewarm about e3 until the Nintendo direct...oof poor wallet-kun about to die again.
Already got the first Cadence crypt on switch, it's a dollar cheaper on steam btw.
I also bought Borderlands the handsome collection on steam since it's at 6$ and I don't really use my ps4 anymore.

And yes, Keanu is breathtaking. yes homo

F4x-3lwx0aa0tcu31
joined Apr 20, 2013

I never played Zelda so is hard to get excited, same with Smash... In other words I'm not a nintendo fan but I do want to play them and splatoon too.
My biggest gift was Final Fantasy, I love fantasy and that was extraordinary precious to me! and as a fantasy fan, Ghostwire seemed really nice too, and this girl was joy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie67KRyPGOo (she really saved bethesda for being a complete disaster).

With Code Vein, Atelier Ryza, Azur lane AAAAAAAAND Grandblue... I think I'll be fine for the next half a year.

last edited at Jun 12, 2019 10:21AM

Img_20220214_023902-min
joined May 10, 2014

Played the KILL LA KILL demo and its coming out the same day as 3 houses...yeah...good thing I been saving up....hah....then Astal Chain next month...send help. or money

Img_20220214_023902-min
joined May 10, 2014

Info dump before I pass out:
Three lesbian options on FE: Three houses! Edgelord Edelgard, Dorothea, Mercedes not benz auto correct plz. So yeah, quickest way to get yuri is Black Eagles, Mercedes is on Blue Lions. You can recruit Dorothea and Mercedes on other paths if you try hard enough, but Edelgard is house locked duh.
Edit: HOLD UP! I opened up the gallery amd spotted two more S ranks? Rhea and Sothis??? And she only has the S on both male and female???? Is it platonic or something??? Actually, don't answer that,I'll find out in like 4-6 months when I 100% this beast.

Kinda sucks about the yaoi options...I'm not going to bother with the whole thing but TL;DR There's only one real option, I love Linhardt because of the memes but if he's not your choice well, tough shit! The other options are two dudes that are as old as your in-game dad.
I would be REALLY angry if we(yuri) got screwed over like that oof

I'm Golden on my first run because reasons. And Claude isn't even bi? Now that's a plot twist.
I know this info is probably old, but I want a pure virgin first few runs and avoided spoilers harder than how I avoid toxic players.
Been playing for 8+ hrs and I'm still on ch3....this is gonna be a looooong one.

last edited at Jul 27, 2019 8:25AM

Img_20220214_023902-min
joined May 10, 2014

Alright! Finally my follow-up comment: took me longer 'cuz I got sick
The game is fecking awesome and I'm really happy about it. I can definitely recommend this one to anyone with a Switch. I laugh, I cried, I got grossed out, I screamed FFUUUUCCCK when I kept getting hit by 11%, I fished for around 10 hrs, I got surprised by the gayness of some supports, Ingrid solo'd the final boss and married Claude lol

Speaking of gayness, I didn't expect Shamir to straight up ask Catherine to marry her...she didn't say no btw, they did end up together in my run as "partners" so I'll assume they did get married . The ending system for the other characters is pretty interesting, a few same-sex-no-homo-right? options as well.

The marriage system for the player character is much more simple. The final scene at least the one I got was really well written, very romantic. Definitely trying a yuri endo next.

The soundtrack is still on point, freaking dubstep in one of the maps...it's actually quite good...

If I had to complain about one thing, it would be the presentation! Look at that PS1 looking monastery, low res cats and the 2d sprites XD

I honestly didn't expect to like this one as much as I like DMC V...oh wait....shit I never praised DMCV here....uh...well...both games are GotY in my eyes!

Ayyyy third comment in a row! yay dead topic!

F4x-3lwx0aa0tcu31
joined Apr 20, 2013

Well yeah we need an option to search in the forum and not just to search works and authors xP it took me a while to find this.
I just came to drop this ... hehehehe

F4x-3lwx0aa0tcu31
joined Apr 20, 2013

I like some good female representation in games hahahahha https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xuhJTDEivU

F4x-3lwx0aa0tcu31
joined Apr 20, 2013

I will play Night of Azure one day xD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV5Gj9Z03AI (spoiler I supposed but whew)

F4x-3lwx0aa0tcu31
joined Apr 20, 2013

renjii posted:

Iplay CSGO and Fortnite. But sometimes I have problem with logging and access to game servers. So I need to check vpn tool for it from because free vpn works too bad and its speed not enough for playing online games.

one of my favorite youtube channels recomended this one https://youtu.be/KFVAvIeTfqo?t=55

2SpiritCherokeePrincess
Carol%20grigg
joined Jun 20, 2020

^ Uh oh, the bots are multiplying!

Img_20220214_023902-min
joined May 10, 2014

That's two res' from the bots. Can someone clean that up? Thanks.

Tumblr_pt8ll4hf781saqlhvo1_500
joined Mar 12, 2018

Ok, I finished "the last of us part II" and I'd so much fun, it's by far the best game I've played since a long time. But I saw a lot of people not liking it. I'm not talking about those who called tlou II a big propaganda for the LGBT community but about the LGBT community saying that the game was transphobic and homophobic. Can anyone enlighten me why ? (I think some of them kept mentioning that Dina and Ellie not having a happy ending was homophobic)

last edited at Dec 6, 2020 8:34PM

Blanksmall
joined Nov 24, 2017

Get stasis out of the crucible ffs.

That is all.

OrangePekoe Admin
Animesher.com_tamako-market-midori-tokiwa-deviantart-950416a
joined Mar 20, 2013

(I think some of them kept mentioning that Dina and Ellie not having was homophobic)

Sorry, not having what? A happy ending?

Tumblr_pt8ll4hf781saqlhvo1_500
joined Mar 12, 2018

(I think some of them kept mentioning that Dina and Ellie not having was homophobic)

Sorry, not having what? A happy ending?

Yes, that's what I was trying to say !

OrangePekoe Admin
Animesher.com_tamako-market-midori-tokiwa-deviantart-950416a
joined Mar 20, 2013

Ok, I finished "the last of us part II" and I'd so much fun, it's by far the best game I've played since a long time.

Hey, that's awesome! There's a lot to like...my favourite parts were Abby's battle with height, and the resident religious Cinnamon Roll Lev.

But I saw a lot of people not liking it...the LGBT community saying that the game was transphobic and homophobic. Can anyone enlighten me why ?

Well, of course it goes without saying that there are countless different groups, individuals, and opinions residing within the (online) LGBT community. I tried to summarise them as briefly as I could, so I hope 4 paragraphs isn't too many! I'll assume you played the first game and DLC, so be warned of spoilers for those. They're arranged with the two most prominent critiques at the top, so feel free to just read those, if you wish to keep it short. (I'm largely basing this on Twitter, and discussions I've had/seen on Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit.)

  1. The first controversies began with the second game's initial trailers and press releases, which seemed to imply that Dina would die early in the game, instead of Joel. This rehashed a previous plot point, the death of Ellie's first love in the first game's DLC. This left a bad taste and impression in a lot of folks' mouths to begin with. A lot of "LGBT Twitter" outwardly project their desire for all LGBT characters to get their happy ending. Nobody in the series gets a happy ending, and the LGBT folks in the series, especially Ellie and Lev, get pretty chronically horrible treatment. By the end, Ellie has lost almost everything she ever had. Lev loses his community, his sister, and then is forced to kill his mother. If you believe that LGBT characters in media ought to be treated better in terms of their rewards, then The Last Of Us II fails this basic premise.

  2. The second major controversy began with the game's release. The game features a sequence of scenes in which Lev is deadnamed multiple times by the Seraphites pursuing him. For significant parts of the community, this was considered completely unacceptable, as deadnaming is disrespectful and unpleasant for trans people, and could be significantly triggering to some. There is a larger discussion about whether deadnaming in media is ever okay, and it seems like in this case, the answer from the LGBT community was "no."

  3. Point 1 intertwines itself with a broader view some people, many of whom are LGBT, hold of the game, that its primary contents amount to little more than the celebration of depravity, or put more simply, torture porn. I think this review in Polygon is a strong argument and summation of that perspective.

  4. Continuing point 2, Lev's character and story have been the topic of much critique. To summarise briefly, the game is rarely, if ever, inclusive of Lev in his story, meaning that we only experience his story through the eyes of cis characters. To some, this is an extreme negative. Secondly, the other character's experiences with Lev are not always the most sensitive to his needs. As an example, in Day 2 of Abby's arc, Lev is revealed to be trans, and on multiple occasions she broaches that topic with him. For some, this is considered an intrusion of his privacy. Later, Abby and Yara have a conversation about Yara's experience coming to accept Lev, which is another intrusion of his privacy. To some trans people, this is disrespectful and unpleasant to experience.

Personally, as an LGBT person, I have a different view of the game than the critiques I've stated above. However, I've spent way too much time reading and discussing the game, so I sincerely hope (and believe) that I've done a respectful job representing their viewpoints.

last edited at Dec 6, 2020 11:00PM

Tragedian%202
joined Oct 1, 2020

However, I've spent way too much time reading and discussing the game, so I sincerely hope (and believe) that I've done a respectful job representing their viewpoints.

This is a pretty good, neutral summary of the positions overall. Another criticism that's not purely related to the LGBT position, but might connect to it is that the game is at odds with itself- namely, that it attempts to fuse videogame mechanics with conventional storytelling (as most games do), but never really gives the player much in the way of agency or control. Simply put, the player is made to be a 'spectator' to a (very) dark drama about revenge and hatred and sundry other cheery themes, but also frequently 'guilted' for violent actions that they had no choice but to take, since the game is fundamentally a third-person shooter that bars progression unless you blow the stuffing out of assorted heads (some of which are named Seth or Doug, as many surrounding heads will mournfully clamour). It simultaneously advertises the edgy, hyper-realistic murder mechanics and treats them as something repulsive, and many people have pointed out that this attempt to simultaneously make you complicit to terrible things while not giving you any actual agency comes off as obnoxious. Ergo, rather than using the medium to elevate the story via the presentation of choices and consequences, the game is essentially a dark zombie TV series with videogame segments thrown into the middle, and switches jarringly from one to the other.

This, combined with the fact that many characters act in relation to the greater plot rather than what most would consider common sense or intelligent decision-making, makes the entire experience feel like a 30 hour tragedy (an integral part of classical tragedy is the inability to avert dark outcomes and the terror that this affords, but obviously, these Aristotelian ideas don't lend themselves well to an entirely different medium than theatre, and many have claimed that the overwrought, sprawling story feels exhausting rather than epic). Therefore, many of the characters feel far too melodramatic or deranged for people to relate to, and this obviously applies to some of the LGBT characters as well. In short, the game slings so much blood and gore at you that it inhibits your ability to care, and at some point, the game stops being a masterpiece or a disaster and turns into an exercise in tromping through entrails (See Darkness Induced Audience Apathy on TV Tropes). The jury's out on how much of this was intentional and how much of it unintended (Game Director Neil Druckmann claimed that they didn't use the word 'fun' during development, which handily reflects what most people felt as well). All in all, it seems like the answer to the question- "What if Gen Urobuchi made a videogame?", with all the polarization that implies. I will say that it's quite ambitious for a mainstream, AAA game though- Naughty Dog could've made something far more generic and still grossed buckletloads of money, but they chose to go for a more artsy, daring approach. Even if it falls flat at times, you gotta give 'em credit for jumping.

I'd recommend two excellent video essays that offer a more comprehensive mechanical critique:
1- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa9oEroGDQc
2- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28EI2su_LIQ

OrangePekoe Admin
Animesher.com_tamako-market-midori-tokiwa-deviantart-950416a
joined Mar 20, 2013

Amusingly enough, I've upvoted both videos already. It's cool to see Thor big enough to be recommended in places now!

I still haven't figured out if all the intriguing dissection the game has brought upon itself is mostly down to its own merits, or something more happenstance. Perhaps, it's even possible that such dissection was meticulously manufactured into the game to begin with. In any case, the seemingly endless videos and essays written about it often do stumble upon new ground. Interesting stuff, all around.

Tragedian%202
joined Oct 1, 2020

I still haven't figured out if all the intriguing dissection the game has brought upon itself is mostly down to its own merits, or something more happenstance.

I'd say it's probably because of the whole morality angle- there's nothing people love more than a discussion about justice and evil and whether or not it's right to shove screwdrivers up orifices in specific situations. I was recently going through various academic research articles on videogames, and found that the vast majority of them engage with the same issue- how do videogames address morality and traditionally 'negative' actions in fictionalized worlds and reward-based systems? It's possibly the oldest and juiciest of debates about the medium, even if the discourse wears thin sometimes. Heck, I don't normally know the first thing about popular AAA games, because they often seem too synthetic or overproduced to grab my attention, but the TLOU2 debate was still enough to pull me in. So while I think the story itself is standard dark, post-apocalyptic character drama fare, the way that it's told serves as a launchpad for tons of interesting ideas. Much like FE3H or FF7R, I consider it a fascinating, if shaky, crucible of ideas and potential. I do hope that going forward, the game isn't just associated with the LGBT controversies, but actually inspires other mainstream developers to try similarly ambitious storytelling and engage with videogames as 'art' instead of purely consumer products.

And yes, Thor is awesome and deserves all the popularity in the world.

Blanksmall
joined Nov 24, 2017

I've never played either of The Last of Us games, but good lord, the complaints that OrangePekoe shared seem to amount to a lot of people refusing to understand how fiction works and that parts of it are not supposed to make you feel good. Especially the deadnaming part. Again, I haven't played the game, but it seems like the entire point of that scenario is to make you hate the people who are deadnaming this person. Griping about it and saying it shouldn't have been done seems to be ignoring its (perceived) intended effect. Evoking both positive and negative emotions from the player is the mark of a good narrative. If I'm completely off-base on that particular scenario and there's more to it that I'm just ignorant of, please forgive me.

Tragedian%202
joined Oct 1, 2020

I've never played either of The Last of Us games, but good lord, the complaints that OrangePekoe shared seem to amount to a lot of people refusing to understand how fiction works and that parts of it are not supposed to make you feel good. Especially the deadnaming part. Again, I haven't played the game, but it seems like the entire point of that scenario is to make you hate the people who are deadnaming this person. Griping about it and saying it shouldn't have been done seems to be ignoring its (perceived) intended effect. Evoking both positive and negative emotions from the player is the mark of a good narrative. If I'm completely off-base on that particular scenario and there's more to it that I'm just ignorant of, please forgive me.

As with most matters of representation, people's reactions to it depend strongly upon their interpretations. Some people felt bad for the character and blamed the game for being needlessly grimdark, others said that this was true to what trans folks go through in real life, many honestly didn't dwell much on the 'trans' part of the character's identity and have either praised the game for not making it central, or panned it for making it so token. If you're cool with Kotaku articles, I'd like to link a fairly neutral and comprehensive take by an actual trans writer who takes all the perspectives into account while admitting their own subjectivity. Even if you haven't played the game, I feel like it'd give you a good perspective.
https://kotaku.com/i-have-mixed-feelings-about-the-last-of-us-part-2s-tran-1844245756

Blanksmall
joined Nov 24, 2017

Such a great article, and such a level-headed approach to the situation. I agree wholeheartedly with the notion that more representation is needed, so that the full spectrum of portrayals can be seen and accepted as they are. This actually made me interested in playing these games, but the latest console I have is a PS2. Maybe after enough time, they'll come out with a PC port.

OrangePekoe Admin
Animesher.com_tamako-market-midori-tokiwa-deviantart-950416a
joined Mar 20, 2013

Moderator Note

Due to inactivity and a huge presence of bots & scams, this thread is being closed for the time being. Feel free to use the Cafe to chat about video games, or ask in the Help thread if you'd like this thread to be opened for any purpose. Thank you.

last edited at Mar 13, 2021 5:11PM

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